


Where We Left Off

by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar)



Series: Imagine Tony & Bucky [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bonding, Brainwashing, Cooking, Domestic Avengers, Hurt/Comfort, Late Night Conversations, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-12
Updated: 2015-03-12
Packaged: 2018-03-17 13:31:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3531119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaqen_hgar/pseuds/Finely%20Honed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <span class="small">Prompt: Imagine Bucky and Tony meeting at night in the common room because of nightmares or Tony's crazy working hours and they somehow bond over late night cooking/eating take out and watching crappy TV. AND Imagine Hydra kidnapping Tony and stripping him of his memories and brainwashing him.</span>
</p><p>Keeping odd hours seemed to be an Avengers prerequisite, so Bucky wasn’t surprised to run into Tony the first time, or even the second time. Common floor, TV on, flicking through channels just to remind himself that it wasn’t 1944 anymore. If that had been the extent of it—missing the past—he’d have counted himself blessed, but it seemed like he had a head full of bad memories just waiting for him to be stupid enough to close his eyes and sleep.</p><p>So at first, sure, it’d seemed normal that Tony had wandered in, and dropped onto the couch next to him, stolen the remote, and pulled up some weird cooking competition program.</p><p>“I don’t know why I love watching cooking shows when I’m starving,” Tony muttered. “Must be the masochist in me.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where We Left Off

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted over on [imaginetonyandbucky.tumblr.com](http://imaginetonyandbucky.tumblr.com/). Be sure to stop on over and also enjoy the amazing contributions of [Potrix](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Potrix/pseuds/Potrix), [27dragons](http://archiveofourown.org/users/27dragons/pseuds/27dragons), [InnerCinema](http://archiveofourown.org/users/InnerCinema), and [kamaete](http://kamaete.tumblr.com/)!

Keeping odd hours seemed to be an Avengers prerequisite, so Bucky wasn’t surprised to run into Tony the first time, or even the second time. Common floor, TV on, flicking through channels just to remind himself that it wasn’t 1944 anymore. If that had been the extent of it—missing the past—he’d have counted himself blessed, but it seemed like he had a head full of bad memories just waiting for him to be stupid enough to close his eyes and sleep.

So at first, sure, it’d seemed normal that Tony had wandered in, and dropped onto the couch next to him, stolen the remote, and pulled up some weird cooking competition program.

“I don’t know why I love watching cooking shows when I’m starving,” Tony muttered. “Must be the masochist in me.”

Bucky wiped his eyes, hoping Tony hadn’t noticed the tears, and tried to focus his attention on the TV. “I’ve seen this guy before.”

“Gordon Ramsay? Yeah, he’s on like thirty shows or something. I’ve eaten at a couple of his restaurants, and gotta say, give me Maurice’s around the corner any day.”

Bucky’s stomach grumbled, and Tony laughed. “Great. It’s infectious.”

“I’m no master chef, but I make a pretty mean grilled cheese.”

Which was true. Tony had made them sandwiches, and they’d even found some tomato soup to heat up, and before he knew what was happening, he was falling asleep on the couch with a full belly and a smile on his face. 

The next time, it’d been  _Law & Order _and helping themselves to all the leftover Thai food in the fridge. The time after that, they’d returned to cooking shows, and made their own absolutely ridiculous take on a Beef Wellington using greasy hamburgers from one of the few places still delivering at that hour, and biscuit dough they’d found in the fridge.

After that, Bucky became suspicious. Everytime he had a nightmare and went into the living room on the common floor, within fifteen minutes Stark would appear.

“You have JARVIS reporting on me?” he accused, snatching the remote back from Tony’s clutches.

The engineer blinked, and shifted uncomfortably. “Um. Not exactly?”

“What’s not exactly mean?”

“Anyone ever tell you the Brooklyn accent really comes out when you’re pissed?” Tony was grinning.

Bucky glared. He didn’t like being coddled, or spied on. “Answer the question.”

The smile slid off of Tony’s face. “Didn’t realize I was bothering you,” he got up, brushing his hands off on his pants, and forced a smile that probably would have fooled someone that didn’t know what the real one looked like. “I’ll get out of your hair.”

Bucky caught up with him halfway to the elevator, grabbed his arm and spun him back around. “You didn’t answer my question.”

He stared down into Tony’s face, taking note of the smudge of grease near his left ear, and the tension around his eyes, but then Tony had looked away, his body relaxing as the fight apparently went out of him. “JARVIS, wanna tell him your orders?”

“On nights he is unable to sleep, I am to inform sir if someone else is occupying either the gym or common area.”

“So, like I said, not exactly,” Tony finished, mouth turned down in a frown.

That changed everything as far as Bucky was concerned. “Alright then. I’ve never made a pie, and it’s buggin’ me.”

Tony’s eyes widened. “Thinking of that berry pie dessert challenge we watched?”

“You got it.”

“Race you to the kitchen?”

They only tackled each other three times on the way there, and after much bickering eventually managed to compromise on blueberry as the type pie they should make. Bucky was pretty sure Tony would agree that making it together was even better than eating it once it was done.

So that became their thing. Late nights, early mornings, more often than not you’d find them wedged together, or draped over each other, despite the couch having ample room for two. Kitchen experiments and questionable TV, bad jokes, sometimes booze, and sometimes one of the others even joined them. Mostly it was just the two of them, and Bucky was just fine with that arrangement.

It got to the point where Bucky just had JARVIS wake him if Tony was up, even if he’d been sleeping the sleep of the just. He’d pull on a hoody and pajama bottoms, plop himself down on the couch with a yawn, and without fail, Tony would arrive, drop down beside him, and Bucky would smile.

It wasn’t just good, it was great. Tony was funny, and inappropriate in the best possible way, and didn’t give a damn about personal space. He’d drop his head into Bucky’s lap, demanding head rubs and scalp massages, or sneak his hand under Bucky’s shirt in order to drag his blunt fingernails up and down Bucky’s back while sitting too close to him, so he probably shouldn’t have been surprised by what happened next.

They’d been sharing several containers of Chinese takeout, each stealing from the other with impunity, until there was only the fortune cookie left. Normally, there would have been a handful up for grabs, but this time there was only the one, and Tony had snatched it up with a victorious  _whoop_ , which left Bucky no choice but to get it back, claiming he’d break it in half and they could share.

The tousle had quickly escalated, until Tony was pinned beneath Bucky on the couch, clutching the now crushed fortune cookie behind his back, and Bucky went to fish it out from under him. Tony was warm, and arching against him, and smiling like a loon. Bucky couldn’t breathe, could only stare and ask himself what the hell he thought he was doing, because he’d cupped the side of Tony’s face, and brought their mouths together, and…

“About time,” Tony groaned, and kissed him back.

He’d tasted like the Chinese food, and like  _Tony_ , and they’d made out until they were both breathing heavily, and rocking against each other. Bucky’d just worked up the courage to slide his hand down across the front of Tony’s pants when the call to assemble interrupted them.

“Now? Really?”

But Bucky had just laughed, nuzzled Tony’s neck, sucking hard enough to draw the blood to the surface, leaving a livid mark. “Souvenir,” he said with a smile, kissing Tony once more before climbing off of him.

“We’re picking up where we left off as soon as whatever this is is taken care of,” Tony insisted, adjusting himself when they were in the elevator.

“Count on it.”

+

Bucky was enroute to the helicarrier when the EMP went off and he lost his comms. His first thought was of Tony, but there was a plan for a reason, and so he regrouped as ordered, watching the skies, hopeful for a flash of red and gold.

One look at Steve’s face and Bucky already knew the answer to his question; he asked anyway, just in case. “Any sign of him?”

“This whole mess was orchestrated to grab Iron Man.” Steve looked ready to start punching answers out of someone, if only they could find someone to punch. He shook his head as if to clear it, and clasped Bucky’s shoulder. “They knew Thor was off planet. HYDRA was waiting, they grabbed him out of the air as soon as the EMP went off.”

And just like that, Bucky felt his panic recede, an eerie calm washing over him. Tony was his, and there was no way in hell he was letting HYDRA’s goons get away with taking him. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began sifting through his own mind, rifling through memories he normally sought to avoid, until he found something of use.

“There used to be a base, about 10 klicks from here,” he announced, opening his eyes. “Underground.” He licked his lips, fought to maintain his calm. “Steve, they had one of Zola’s devices there.”

Steve’s eyes widened. He knew what that meant. “Can you find it?” Bucky nodded. “Let’s round up the others, and get a move on!”

+

It was easier said than done. Each minute that passed was one they couldn’t spare, and even with Widow, Hawkeye and Hulk finding them relatively quickly, it still took much longer than Bucky would have liked before they even secured transportation unaffected by the EMP.

Infiltrating the base was another matter entirely, one requiring caution, and stealth, neither of which were Hulk’s strong suits. There was no telling how many waited inside, or what they might do to Tony if they realized the Avengers had tracked them down, and so they said goodbye to Hulk and hello to Bruce.

Bucky forced himself to push aside thoughts of the chair, of the torture and misery he’d experienced in this base and others like it across the globe. Getting to Tony was the priority. They could worry about the rest once they found him.

Only once they found him, Bucky had to choke down a scream, even as he quickly put a bullet between the eyes of each of the technicians operating the device, Steve rallying to his side as they turned it off, and pulled Tony free.

“Tony!”

He was careful when removing the mouth guard, careful when stroking the side of Tony’s face, and checking his vitals. His eyes were blank, and glassy, and Bucky felt the fear and anger threatening to overwhelm him.

"Get him to Bruce," Steve ordered. "We’ll mop up here."

But Bruce only confirmed his suspicions.

"It looks like he’s been wiped. They were beginning the brainwashing when you got to him, but it looks like the first part of the process was successful."

Bucky stared at Tony, at the empty eyes staring back at him. He wrapped the blanket around him a little tighter, rubbed his arms to help warm him up, unable to tear his eyes away from the love bite he’d left on Tony’s skin what felt like a lifetime ago.

Bucky experienced a profound need to blow every last one of the HYDRA bases to kingdom come. 

+

Bucky set the plate down in Tony’s lap. He stared at his grilled cheese sandwich a moment, but then lifted it to his mouth and took a bite, expression blank. Bucky watched him chew, swallow, and then take another bite.

"No way is he going to win this," Bucky said, shaking his head at the TV. "He makes some sort of weird foam for every challenge."

Tony ate his sandwich and said nothing at all.

+

Bucky placed his hands atop Tony’s own, and showed him how to roll out the pastry dough evenly.

"Blueberry or cherry?"

Tony chewed at his lip, puzzling over the choice as if his life depended upon the outcome of his decision. “Blueberry?”

Bucky grinned, and Tony’s face lit up, relief and happiness evident. “Alright, blueberry it is.”

They ate the pie together, Bucky holding Tony’s hand throughout the long night, their faces lit by the flickering light of the TV.

+

JARVIS gave him the heads up that Tony was already waiting for him on the common floor, meaning Bucky didn’t have to take him out of bed and lead him down there for a change.

The TV was on when he arrived,  _Law & Order_ this time, and Tony said, “I like the sound they play between scenes.”

"Me too."

When Bucky sat down, Tony leaned into him, dropping his head onto Bucky’s shoulder. “I’m hungry.”

"Let’s see what we can do about that."

They raided the fridge and ignored all the warnings scrawled atop Clint’s leftovers, helping themselves to everything. “So this is what Thai food tastes like?”

"Mm hmm."

"I like it."

"Me too."

+

"I’ve seen this guy before."

Bucky turned to find Tony staring at the TV as if it held the answers to the mysteries of life. He swallowed and tried not to get his hopes up. “Yeah, that’s Gordon Ramsay.”

"I… I’ve actually met him, I think?" Tony was leaning closer to the TV, his face scrunched up in concentration. "He… I asked for ketchup and he yelled at me!"

"You asked  _Gordon Ramsay_  for  _ketchup_?” Bucky asked, shocked, the excitement over Tony remembering something momentarily overshadowed by the sacrilegious nature of Tony’s confession.

Tony smiled at him. “I didn’t even want it, I just wanted to get yelled at!”

Bucky burst out laughing, didn’t stop until Tony grabbed him, and kissed him.

"Wanna order Chinese?" Tony asked, smiling wide, eyes bright. "I’ve got a craving for those Singapore noodles you always get."

So they placed the order, and Bucky kissed Tony again, and again, and after the food arrived and they ate, they finally got the chance to pick up where they had left off.


End file.
